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Reviews For: Unit 24, Christopher Columbus Condominiums - ZF Grand Cayman Isl

Category: DXpedition & ham radio vacation rentals

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Review Summary For : Unit 24, Christopher Columbus Condominiums - ZF Grand Cayman Isl
Reviews: 2MSRP:
Description:
2 bed room condo on the beach with antennas
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.martykaiser.com/24.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
K3VA Rating: 2016-12-31
Condo Great: Operating Not Time Owned: N.A.
Unit 24 was really nice and staff great. No problems. Beach really close.
Big problem was with some type of interference that wiped out all the bands. New 7300 and power supply checked out before leaving.

There is two Huge single phase power transformers and also SIX a/c compressors near both the Vertical and LW antennas.


E-Mailed Marty after I returned home and he stated that he had similar problems prior to my renting. I believe a few months before.


Would be nice if there was some type of communications about the operating status before renting Unit 24. I would suggest to have a backup plan (which I didn't) to operate before renting.
Probably contact the local (ZF!A) club and inquire about operating there. The club is a good drive from CC condos.

Side notes: ZF license is $25.00 US and import license is $30.00 US. Yes they did check my radio and paperwork at Cayman. US credit cards work ok.

Forms can be downloaded off the net but its best to call the ICTA office for latest info.
My contact was a Ms. Tiffany Duarte(Licensing Analyst.
K3IXD Rating: 2008-02-22
Excellent for DX Holiday Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I choose this condo for my first try as a single operator DXpedition. I did some SSB, PSK31 and RTTY operating and I entered the WXP RTTY contest. The Condo was excellent. Great staff, friendly. Nice beach. A good site the non ham spouse. There are taxis but a rental car is really handy for sight seeing, getting to the food store and restaurants. The info for the ZF license and form for taking your equipment is on his web page. No problems getting the call sign requested, ZF2XD, nor getting the equipment form OK'ed.

The only negative was the web site didn't say that the "wire" antenna was a long wire; however, I did bring a LDG 4:1 balun and with my tuner and that made the wire usable on 80m and 40m. The tuner is needed for the vertical too. I never tried 160m. Also bring two lengths of coax, one about 12 feet to extend the coax from the vertical antenna's coax to the dinning room table, and another 20 foot length from the balun attached to the end of the long wire to the dinning room table. There is separate wire from inside to an outside ground. Running 100w, no TVI.

There is wireless internet in the complex but the signal in the room wasn't very strong; therefore,
I couldn't keep connected to the cluster over a long period of time nor always connect.

Bottom line: if you are a big gun contester, this isn't the place for you. If you want to
have fun being DX and doing contest operation consider Christopher Columbus Condo Unit 24.

73, Ed
K3IXD/ZF2XD